Government Energy Policy, Business and Technology

Why Puerto Rico's Electric Grid Stood No Chance Against Maria

FiveThirtyEight: More than two weeks after Hurricane Maria crashed into Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, Allan Rivera had still not had a full night’s sleep. “Every three hours … I get up and do some maintenance on the generator,” he told me. His wife — who has multiple sclerosis — relies on air conditioning to help minimize her symptoms, but Toa Baja, the town where he lives on the island’s north coast, was still without electricity. That meant Rivera had to keep a gasoline-powered generator running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

This is a cruel irony for Rivera, the president of a Puerto Rican organization that advocates for renewable energy. And it’s a situation that he and many other Puerto Ricans are likely to be stuck with for some time. Maria knocked out all of the island’s electricity. As of Friday, only 9 percent of Puerto Ricans had gotten it back. But that number isn’t stable — over the course of the week it went from 16 percent, to 10, and back up to 17 percent before falling. Two days after the storm, experts on the island said it could take four to six months to restore service. Rivera told me he was hearing that it could be eight months to a year before the whole island — big cities, small towns and rural countryside — is electrified again.

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